This is pretty much going to be 1000 (actually 2000) (actually 2987) words worth of showing that time is passing.

Enjoy! :)

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Not only is Mr. Denton a great teacher and a very empathetic man, he also lets their group of friends have lunch in his classroom when the weather gets too nasty to eat outside.

Today is especially stormy. Today will be first of many spent eating lunch in Mr. Denton's classroom.

By now, David fits in to the group dynamic. All of Jack's friends were pretty open to him joining them. At first, they were kind of surprised at how fast Jack found a new kid, but they all like him too now.

And now with only the people in the classroom who could hear anything they say, now they can rant about pretty much anything.

Sleep, homework, expectations, and gay rights are often talked about.

And since they can do what they want, they're all sitting on top of the desks.

Because gays can't sit in chairs correctly.

"I mean, the school wants us to get good sleep, complete all the homework, and do sports," Tony says. "I mean, it's ridiculous. I'm sorry, but I can't do all three."

"Definitely," Sean agrees. "Not to mention all the tests are the same days."

"Exactly!" Louis and Nick exclaim together. Then they grin at each other and brush noses.

They are so cute together.

"Am I allowed to say I have a lot of homework?" Charlie asks, just a little timidly. "I know I haven't been in high school that long, and it gets so much worse in later grades..."

"Of course you can say you have a lot of homework!" Jack, Sean, Tony, Louis, and Nick exclaim at once.

"Ninth grade was hard," Tony gives him. He looks at Sean. "That's why you need to find the people who will help you through it all." Sean smiles back at him.

David watches all this go on, still a little bit on the outside. He knows they accept him as part of their group. But he can see they all have chemistry, and that they've known each other forever. They have history that he can't claim to know.

Jack notices that David's holding back. He motions to the desk next to him. "Come sit closer."

David feels his face heat up a little. But he wouldn't turn down Jack. "Okay."

"What was it like at your old school, David?" Tony asks curiously. "Was it anything like this?"

"Expectations that are very unrealistic and only the golden few will ever meet them? Definitely," David answers.

That gets a couple snickers.

"Isn't that just all schools?" Louis jokes.

"It shouldn't be that way, though," Nick adds. "Things are supposed to be getting better with the school system. Not worse."

"True that," Sean agrees. "But, literally. We're talking about school."

"The school system has done literally nothing good for anyone," Tony declares. "Especially for those who aren't the 'golden few' like David said."

"They overestimate our mental capacities while they treat us like children," Jack says. "If anyone has double standards, it's the teachers."

"All the teachers?" Mr. Denton finally contributes to the conversation.

"Not all all the teachers," Jack amends quickly.

"There are good ones," Tony adds. "Like you."

Mr. Denton smiles. "That's good to hear."

"Kinda off-topic, but GSA's gonna meet in here again, right?" Sean asks him.

Mr. Denton nods. "That's the plan."

David missed out his chance awhile ago to ask about GSA. There's no better opportunity than this. Better seize the moment or forever hold his peace.

"Is everyone in here going to be in GSA?" he asks quietly.

It's loud enough for Jack to hear. And for David to get Jack's full attention.

"Yep," Jack answers. "Right now, you're eating lunch with pretty much most of the members of GSA. Mr. Denton oversees it, and lets us use his classroom, and brings snacks-" 

"One third of GSA is snacks!" Nick jumps in.

"And he pretty much lets us do whatever we want," Jack finishes. "I mean, within reason."

"Anyone can join, right?" David asks. "At any time of the year?"

"Yep," Jack answers. Something flashes in his eyes. "You thinking of showing up at GSA?"

All eyes are on him. But not a single pair of eyes is judging him.

"I..." David averts his eyes, then looks back up. "Yeah."

There's no judgement. Just approval.

So what if David didn't actually come out? This is like the pre-version of coming out. And it's close enough; even though allies can show up, that rarely ever happens.

"Mr. Denton, when can we finally illegally watch a gay movie in GSA this year?" Tony asks suddenly. "You know. Be gay do crime?"

"We can watch The Birdcage!" Sean adds.

"Too many f-bombs for the child over there," Louis points at Charlie.

"Hey!" Charlie exclaims, undignified. "I'm not that young!"

David is still gaping at them. "You're talking about pirating a movie in front of a teacher? And...with the teacher?"

Jack laughs. "Yeah, that's kinda how it is. Mr. Denton's the cool teacher."

"He'd let us get away with murder," Tony jokes.

"I definitely draw the line there," Mr. Denton jumps back into the conversation, smile on his face. "And I never said that I'm okay with illegally watching a movie."

"We just trust him enough to talk about stuff like this around him," Louis explains.

"That's why we're all so relaxed about it," Jack adds, still as calm as a cucumber.

What kind of friend group have I become a part of? David thinks to himself.

But he likes it. A lot.

He looks at all the smiling faces. They care about each other. There's a fondness that they all use when looking at each other.

They're just a group of random kids from random grades.

And somehow it just works.

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Kathryn and Sarah have gone on a couple dates now.

This is their third one.

They're out at a local café, and are going to go see a movie in a little bit.

And Kathryn has a couple of things to say.

Sarah does too.

Sarah beats them to their first question.

"Now that we've been on dates...does that mean we go on dates, or are we officially dating?" Sarah asks. "I've never done this before. And I know there's a difference."

"I was actually going to ask you the same question," Kathryn laughs. "I was wondering what you thought."

"Well..." Sarah pauses. She wants to do this right. "If you want to consider us as girlfriends..."

"I would love that," Kathryn bursts.

Sarah smiles. "Really?"

"Really." Then Kathryn tucks a strand of hair behind her hair. Sarah noticed that this is something that she does as a nervous habit. "There was something else I wanted to tell you."

Sarah's listening intently.

Kathryn takes a deep breath in. "I...think I'm a demigirl. And before you ask, it's like...I identify as a girl, but not all the time. It's in between cis girl and non binary. So...I was wanting to start going by she/they pronouns, and..." she trails off. She doesn't know where that sentence was going. For once, words have escaped her. She waits anxiously for Sarah's response.

Sarah smiles at her. "That's really cool."

That gets Kathryn hopeful. "Really?"

"Really. I'm glad you told me."

Kathryn smiles, looking down. Her shyness level has risen a bunch in the past minute. "You're the first one I've told."

"Then I'm honored."

Kathryn looks up to Sarah's smiling face.

She's so glad that the two of them have met.

"So can I refer to you as my girlfriend?" Sarah asks. "Or should I find another term?"

Kathryn's just happy that Sarah asked.

"I think girlfriend works for now," Kathryn answers. "I'll tell you if I find any word I like better."

"Sounds good."

A moment of comfortable silence.

And Kathryn is feeling better than ever.

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It's October 11th. National Coming Out Day.

David listens to I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross while getting ready.

Sarah listens to Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko.

David doesn't know if he's ready to tell his parents about his sexuality yet; not like how Sarah has. He's glad that they accepted her. He just needs a little more time.

He will tell Jack--and probably everyone else--about being bi and ace today.

And what better way to do it than at GSA during lunch today?

Sarah comes into his room playing Born This Way by Lady Gaga. They both love that song.

"You ready?" she asks.

"Ready as I'll ever be," David answers.

Hope I still feel that way in a couple hours.

David sees Jack nearly first thing when he walks into school today.

"Hi David!" Jack greets him with a smile. "Happy National Coming Out Day!"

David smiles. "Happy National Coming Out Day to you too."

"GSA is going to be fun today," Jack tells him. "We always listen to amazing gay songs, and a lot of people like coming out all at once. I mean, I think we all know what everyone is by now, but it's part of the fun."

He snickers. "Ha! We all know what everyone is bi now. Like me: I'm bi."

David's heart stops beating for a second.

"Bad joke, I know," Jack says after David waited too long to respond, interpreting silence as not getting the joke.

"No, no," David reassures him. "It was great, actually." He pauses. "Bi the way, you're very punny."

Jack's smile grows even more.

"I'm just saying, it's going to be-"

David can't wait until lunch. "I'm asexual biromantic," he blurts out.

Jack stops. His eyebrows raise for a moment. "What?"

David blushes. His heart is beating as fast as a humming birds. "I'm...I'm...asexual biromantic." He bites his lip. "I probably have to explain what that means-"

"No, no," Jack cuts him off. "I know exactly what that is."

That catches David by surprise. "Really?"

"You're talking to a disaster bisexual who listens to Mr. Denton educate a bunch of teenagers in a GSA about how many sexualities and identities there are. I know a thing or two."

David smiles. 

And suddenly, he feels something else.

Relief.

And euphoria.

He never knew that coming out felt this good.

Why didn't he do this forever ago?

He's excited for lunch.

And much to his surprise, he'll find out that Mr. Denton is ace, just like him.

And for once, among everyone, he'll actually feel like he belongs.

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(A/N: I'm doing something a little different with the texting format, I hope it's not too confusing to follow. Tony's texts will be in bold, Sean's will be underlined)

Earlier today you ranted about how no one knows many Italian songs

Care to send me a list of the best ones so I'm not one of those ignorant people?

Grazie al cielo

I thought you would never ask

Just give me a sec

I'll send a list

This could take a minute or five

Or knowing me ten haha

Maybe narrow it down to somewhere between top five and top ten songs?

I was planning on having just ten songs of Luciano Pavarotti

May he rest in peace

But there are soooo many good songs

Sooooo many

From so many different artists

How am I supposed to choose between all these masterpieces?

How about we start with just five to ten that you NEED someone else to know, and we go from there?

Fine

Not that long later, Tony sends a list of eleven songs. Sean smiles as he counts them. He finds them all quickly, clicks on one, and starts doing his homework.

Not even half an hour later, he gets a text from Tony.

Which ones have you listened to?

Volare, Il Gatto E La Volpe, La Torre Di Babele, and Se Tu Fossi Qui

Ooh!! Good. Save Chiamiami Ancora Amore for last

Sounds good

Oh, and La Voce Del Silenzio should be one of the last ones

K

So you have OK Italia, Amore e Musica (listen to it second to last), other Volare, and Città Vuota left

Yep. Listening to OK Italia now

Great!! That's a good one

Yeah very catchy

Yeah!! And I know you don't understand the words, but pretend I'm singing the song and you're the one I'm singing too

Gotcha

Sean knows that him listening to this music makes Tony happy. The only problem with texting is that he'll never know if Tony's eyes lit up when he saw Sean ask him to send him song recommendations.

And it is a catchy song. Especially the chorus. Sean might not be able to sing much of the words, but he has the Ok Italia! Yeeee-eee-ah part down.

Sean's only done a little bit of Italian on Duolingo, but he picks up a couple words here and there.

And then he hears a word that sounds a little out of place.

So then he goes up to look up the English translation.

He pauses the song immediately and starts texting Tony.

You are NOT funny.

Uh oh a period at the end of a sentence

And I would like to beg to differ

Wait was that a sentnece that made sense?

*sentnence?

*SENTENCE

Wait actually I think that was iambic pentameter

Yep

Except it's a syllable short

Huh reading Shakespeare DID help my poetic writing

Anyway

Come on

I'm HILARIOUS

Sean sighs.

This is his boyfriend.

Not that he would exchange him for anyone/anything else.

But Tony can be very exasperating some times.

You won't be easily forgiven for this.

I know I know

Will you at least listen to the rest of the songs??

He can hear the plea in Tony's voice. And practically see the face Tony would make.

Fine.

Yay! Grazie! Love youuuu <3

Sean smiles.

Love you too <3

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I know many of you won't understand what's going on with the song, but I've been wanting to write that for at least a week now and I can't stop laughing at it.

There's nothing wrong with the lyrics of the song Ok Italia by Edoardo Bennato. But you may want to look up the English translation to see why Sean is so annoyed by Tony saying to pretend like he's the one being sung about.

The best Luciano Pavarotti song (of my opinion) isn't on the list, because I'm saving it for something special.

My sibling has no sense of trying to trace family roots, or dive into forgotten family culture. And they don't like Edoardo Bennato or Luciano Pavarotti. So sad...

How Tony/Race texts is how I text. Misspelling a word multiple times haha. And going off in random directions. And pretty much a spam. Either a spam of a bunch of short texts, or one to two long texts, or a mixture of both: a spam of long texts; or spam of long and short texts.

The thing with ADHD and texting is that with texting, you HAVE to get all the words out. When you're talking, you can change mid word, mid sentence, mid thought. You have to actually follow through with an idea when texting. So, due to that and impulsivity, the person on the receiving end can actually see my thought process haha.

And don't tell me Tony wouldn't tell Sean to listen to at least two different versions of the song Volare/Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu. That's one of my favorite songs in Italian, and it's sung many times by all the classic people.

And listening to songs in other languages is more fun when I know that I can understand (at least a little) what they're saying.

So in the first bit when they were openly talking about illegally watching movies is inspired by how at school the kids in my GSA (or pretty much any student) will say legit anything in front of our librarian, who oversees our GSA. We talk about pirating movies, complain about the school system, and say a lot of things we wouldn't say to any random teacher. It's because we trust her. And she gives us snacks in GSA. All the time. Seriously. On Friday before Winter Break in GSA we had a literal feast of sweets.

Kathryn coming out to Sarah was sweet. :)

And David's post coming out greatly resembles mine when I first came out. Am I out to my parents yet? No. But pretty much all my friends know. And coming out, especially for the first time...you never forget it.

I don't know why, but David and Denton both strike me as fellow asexuals, so...yeah.

I'm Coming Out and Girls Like Girls and Born This Way are all amazing songs. All make my day. As do countless other LGBTQ+ songs.

So the thing about National Coming Out Day is that the first calendar year I first came out, my friend and I dressed up as Armand and Albert Goldman from The Birdcage, and everyone thought we were coming out as a gay couple, which we weren't, and it was a lot of fun. And I will never not think of National Coming Out Day without associating it with that memory.

I chose the title while listening to Sweet Night by V and I like it. I changed the title many times haha. The song is good too, and is used in a Netflix show called Itaewon Class--which has a trans character in it.

So, having adequately gone through time, we are on November's doorstep.

Hope you all like the next chapter! It's going to be full of a lot of things!

Please, no homophobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (whose ADHD was strong in determining how the writing of this chapter went--as in, it was all over the place and skipping around a lot haha)